We're continuing our study in scripture and psychology, just to review what we've looked at to date. We looked at what is man, body and spirit, that he is not three parts but two. We looked at the biblical usage of the term heart. in both the Old and New Testaments, seeing that, generally speaking, it refers to the thinking process, but also to the will and to the affections. And now we're going to make some application for ethics with respect to the nature of man and with respect to the heart itself. What this means for ethics, first then on page one of your handouts, Matthew 12, 34 through 37. Our Lord says, O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Okay, so notice here a couple things. First is that in verse 34, our Lord identifies the source of speech. Why do we say what we say? Well, it's the heart. And remember, the heart is what you think, How is the bent of your will? What are the specific choices you make? Where do you set your affections? That dictates and determines how the mouth speaks. So ethically, the core of man is the source of his moral conduct. It comes out of him. And then he contrasts two types of hearts. One is a good man. That means his heart has been made good or made what God originally created. He's restored that, which we'll look at later in the renewal of the image of God. And inside of the good man, you have a good treasure of his heart. What does he lay aside? What does he lay up in his heart? What are the things that he values highly and protects and ensures that he can retain? Good things. And then his mouth speaks forth those good things. An evil man, who is not what God designed him to be, who is at odds with the law of his creation and the law of his creator, he treasures up in his mind, in his will, in his affections, evil things. And so he brings them out and he speaks them. And then our Lord identifies that because the status of the heart is known by the words, Then at the day of judgment, Christ will be capable of taking the words that we have spoken, good or evil, and he will make a judgment based off of that. Did you actually believe? This is what James talks about with the government of the tongue. You can say you believe, but do you regulate your tongue? Because if you don't, then your religion is vain. So, by thy words thou shalt be justified. This is not meaning Well, say all the right things, and God will mark you down in the book and say, you're declared righteous because you said all the right things. No. The point is, from the abundance of the heart. What sort of heart? Do you have a transformed, a good heart, made good by God himself, where he's restored the image of God, and so the words reflect it? That will be the basis on which Christ will judge every idle word. or a word to no purpose, you'll have to give an account of it, because that comes forth from what sort of heart? An idle or a foolish heart. All right, Matthew 15, 7 through 9. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Now the Bible does not contrast, as I mentioned previously, the heart with the head. It doesn't do that. But it does contrast the heart, you'll notice there, with the mouth, or with the lips. So, the lips and the mouth are what you say, or what you would like people to think about you, what you profess. The heart is, well, what actually do you think? Because in this case, their heart is alienated from God, but their mouth says they're not. So that's hypocrites. That's why he says that. He hypocrites. And then what appears to men, from what they hear you say, versus the substance of who you actually are, those are two different things for the hypocrite. And then verse nine, he demonstrates, well, what's one mark of hypocrisy? It's not the only mark, but it's one of them. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. So here's the profession. I worship God. God says, worship me this way, believe these doctrines. And the hypocrite says, no, I'm not gonna worship how you've said, I'm gonna worship how I want. This is very important. The most fundamental act of worship is to accept the means that God says you're supposed to worship him according to. So you can't say, I worship God, but will not listen to his commandments about how I'm supposed to worship. That's the exact opposite. That's the most un-worshipful thing to do, to say, no, I'm not going to listen to you. I'm not going to worship how you say. So the profession is, we draw near to God. The substance is, we don't. And in this context, he's dealing with the issue of extra-scriptural oral traditions handed down from the fathers. And they brought this to Jesus and said, look, your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders. We have an ecclesiastical ordinance issued from the fathers that they claimed in the Talmud went back to Moses by oral tradition. Why don't your disciples observe that? That's hypocrisy. Christ has commanded in his law how he's supposed to be worshipped. He's taught us good doctrines. They're not from men. They're from God himself. These ecclesiastical authorities, as good as they may have been, they're still men. So they cannot be a source of doctrines or worship practices. But hypocrisy says, Yes, but notice mouth versus heart. Sincerity of a true profession that springs forth good things from the heart as we saw in chapter 12 of Matthew versus just words that you say, but you're not actually going to do. And then he goes on Matthew 15, 17 through 20 later in that same passage. Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man." Okay, so note there in verse 17, you have what are bodily functions. Remember, man is composed of two parts, body and spirit. The ordinary bodily functions, they don't have a moral value. As those things come into you, ordinary eating, drinking, whatever, those things, they don't make you approved before God, and they don't make you defiled before God. So that's the first step. Ordinary bodily functions, they don't present you some kind of merit before God. Then verse 18, he shows that moral actions that come from the heart, that is the core of man, thoughts, will, affections, those have moral value. They can defile you. The things that proceed from the inner man, the heart. Same word we looked at in that whole study. Those words and deeds against God's holy law, they can defile. They have the power to do that because they come from the outside, excuse me, they come from the inside out. Foods or washing your hands, those come from the outside in. And this is going to be massive in its implication for psychology when we do a contrast. Because what you're going to find is, for Freudians, and for behaviorists, and for pop psychology, and for Christian counseling, and even some who profess to be biblical counselors, they believe that man is nothing more than a product of his environment. And that his environment explains his behavior. So if you want to fix his behavior, you change his environment. That's the idea. And we'll see that very clearly. They also think that man is just his body, not body and spirit, and then they will essentially make man into his brain, for example. We'll see this. They'll actually... Christian counselors from the Association of Biblical Counselors will confuse the brain with the spirit and the soul. and they'll think that this physical organ inside of your skull is your soul, which is exactly what behaviorists believe. You're just a big chemical reaction, your brain is one place where chemical reactions take place, and your behavior should be understood in light of the chemical reactions. That is the position of the Pharisees, that you can be defiled by eating food without washing your hands. So it's defilement comes from outside and is introduced by external stimuli or environmental considerations. Our Lord absolutely denies that. He says that the things that have moral character in a man's life, where do they come from? Out of the heart. So the problem isn't your environment. The problem is you. The problem is me. The problem is the wickedness that resides inside of us in our soul, in our immaterial part. That's where sin comes from. And we'll see when Paul says that in my flesh dwells no good thing. He's calling what should be the spirit of man, the higher part, by the name of the lower part. He's not saying that sin resides in the body. That's not true. That's absolutely false. Sin does not reside in the body. Sin is exercised by the body. That's true. But where does it start? Where is its origin? It's in the heart, in the soul, in the spirit. That's where sin resides. Okay. And then Romans 1 18 through 21. I just want to illustrate again the nature of evaluating human behavior and what does it mean for ethics that man is body and spirit and what does it mean for man's heart. We're going to look at here in these passages. So Romans 1 18 through 21. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God hath showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." We'll see a parallel passage in Ephesians 4 in a moment, Lord willing. But here notice a couple of things. When Paul wants to give a clear exposition by the inspiration of the Spirit of God of the status of fallen man in his Gentile expression, he starts with truth. See that. God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now some incorrectly say that this idea is suppressing the truth. But the verb that he uses here for holding, Timothy is commanded to hold fast the pattern of sound words. It's the same verb, katekonton. It means to hold fast, not let it go. Hold it down so that it doesn't escape you, in other words. So these people, what he's claiming, and this is absolutely true, these Gentiles having no Bible have so much knowledge of God That they can see it outside of themselves and they can see it inside of themselves. He talks about both. So first, understand that their ungodliness and their unrighteousness is in the context of a firm knowledge of God's truth. They know things about God. That's the first thing. But the manner in which they hold it is in unrighteousness, in lawlessness, to the purpose contrary to God's purpose for holding the truth. And then the apostle gives several things. First, in verse 19, that which may be known of God. This word means something clearly recognizable, that which may be known. Ta-nostan. Those things knowable about God. They hold those things in their minds. And then he says, is manifest in them, not just in the works of God outside of them, but if they're to look inside of their own person, their mind, their conscience, their moral sense, their will. They know things about God just by looking at themselves. And you'll notice if you read Calvin's Institutes, he has a section on, at the beginning, the knowledge of ourselves and of God. Why? Well, because man is a microcosm of God. So if he looks into himself, he sees things that tell him, there's something much greater than myself. I'm a copy of some greater original. So this is the idea. The things which are clearly recognizable about God are manifest inside of the human character, inside of the human personality. For God showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. So now we're talking about not just man as one of the creatures of God, the things that are made, but also the things outside of him. The Apostle says that these things are clearly seen. And this means to be revealed or known. It's like a self-evident truth. It's so obvious. Everyone can see it just by looking at the machinery of the universe that there is someone who made it. It's so ridiculous to deny. Not just the microcosm that man is of God, but also the specific nature of the universe that surrounds man. You have to be a fool to think that somehow there wasn't a designer of this amazing thing that you see every single day. You'd have to be a fool to say there is no God. So he goes on and says that these invisible things of God, his attributes, his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, they are without apologia. It's a denial of having an excuse or a defense or an apology by which these people could say, well, my godless ways, my unrighteous ways are excusable because no, no, no, no. See, you're without excuse. Even if you don't have the Bible, you're without excuse for your unrighteous and ungodly behavior, because everything necessary to be known about God is either known internally or externally or both. And it's a sufficient amount so that you can't excuse your behavior. You cannot say one thing is excusable. Now, we're going to see psychology. What do they specialize in? Excuses for your evil behavior. But God says, there aren't any. There's no excuse. You can't say, I was raised in a Gentile environment, because you know that idols are the work of men's hands. You can't say, I was justified in murdering that person, because you know, thou shalt not kill is written on your conscience from the fact of your humanity. All these things are known. The power of God, the Godhead of God, All the laws we'll look at in, well, we're not going to look at it, but you know, from chapter two of Romans, the law is written upon the heart. So the specifics of the Decalogue are known to the Gentiles by nature. They don't need somebody to teach them the Ten Commandments. They already have it. They already have it written on their hearts. So then he goes on. No excuse, because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. Now vain is like empty. And that word imaginations is the dialogues we looked at, how the heart was constantly dialoguing in the New Testament, reasoning things through. This is what it means. Their reasoning process is vain. They're trying to reason and make excuses as to why they have a defense of the evil that they do. I don't really worship the statue. I worship the divine spirit that the statue is just reminding me of. I don't really worship the painting of the Virgin Mary. I worship the Virgin who is above all and over all. No, this is vain imagination, the same one that the heathens used, the papists used. But be that as it may, there is no excuse for these unrighteous behaviors. but they're going to try. And so because of that, he says, they became vain in their imaginations. And he says, their foolish heart was darkened. And that word foolish carries with it the idea asunitas. Asunitas is where you have the capacity to put all the pieces together to see how it all fits and to have a full picture and understanding. Asunitas means you can't do that. Your heart, he says, because of the judgment of God against their sin, they cannot put the pieces together and come to the proper conclusion and understanding. That's the judgment against this rejection of what they already knew. Okay, but notice, when we think of the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, the first thing we should think of is how vain their thinking is. Why? because that's what man basically is. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So if his thoughts, if he has the truth but rejects the practical implications, if he knows things about God, because they're self-evident and manifest, if they can look inside of themselves and see something about God, look outside of themselves and see something about God, his eternal power and Godhead, if these are clearly understood truths about God, and yet they have no excuse, but they make excuses, There's the point of the beginning of their troubles, because the knowledge that they have is not made good use of. God expects that when he gives you knowledge, you'll use it properly. They have all kinds of knowledge. All of us actually have all kinds of knowledge. And if we say no, we open ourselves up to the wrath of God. And that's what he's discussing. The judgment of God. So that you cannot, in your reasoning capacity, reason out anything correctly. Your heart, notice it says, was darkened. Who do you think did the darkening? Well, God did, as a judgment for the former sins. God judges sin with sin. So here, the rejection of the knowledge of God is judged with further darkness, so that the mind doesn't have light, but rather has darkness. The heart becomes a sunitas, incapable of understanding, incapable of reasoning, incapable of putting it all together. So this is the moral background, which starts where? In the heart. We have to understand that. The thoughts of man determine his morality. And that's true of godly men, the good heart, as our Lord said, and that's true of ungodly men, the evil heart. Okay, Romans 12, one and two. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Here, notice a couple of things. First is, this exhortation is based off of the mercies of God, and that's what Romans is all about. Chapter three, verse 21, till you get to chapter 11 at the end, the whole theme is the mercies of God. First part is the wrath of God, then the mercies of God, then the duties of men. That's generally how you could say the epistles of the New Testament divide themselves. Not exactly that airtight, but Romans is pretty clear. 12.1, you start with the practice. Everything before the mercies of God, and before that is the wrath of God. But here notice, man is composed of two parts, the body and the spirit. The body and the logos. So he says, by considering all these mercies of God, you have a duty. Present your bodies. Somata is the word. It's the corpse. It can refer to an animal having a body or a human having a body. In this case, it's the human body. Take your human body. Not a bull. Not a goat. None of the animals of the law. Irrational beasts. Take your body, he says, and present it as a living sacrifice. Not slitting your throat. Not slashing your wrists. Alive. A living sacrifice. And then he says that this is your reasonable service. Logikon. Latreon. Logical. It makes sense. your rational service. If God has done all these things for you, his mercies, you should be ready to sacrifice yourself and offer up to him as upon an altar yourself. It's like you're the priest, you're the sacrifice. Just like Christ was the priest and he was the sacrifice. So God says to us, you likewise present yourselves. as a living sacrifice. This is only reasonable. This worship, Latreia, means like liturgy, the service that you do, that you perform, as priests of God, in other words, this makes perfect sense. So notice there's the body and there's the rationality, both of them coming together through the gospel to make us into living sacrifices. And then he says, here's the moral application Be not conformed to this world. This implies that you're being conformed to the world and you're to stop it. Don't be remade in their image. But be transformed. Metamorphosed is the Greek word. Be absolutely changed like Christ was metamorphosed on the Mount of Transfiguration. He turned into something that they had never seen. He says the same for us. Your mind is not to be removed. He doesn't say by the removing of your mind you'll have some amazing experience because you took your mind out. No. It's the renewing of your mind. The making of your mind new. Recreated. Your transformation will happen by the recreation of your mind. And once your mind has been recreated in the image of God, God has a specific purpose for that. That ye may. Remember, that's where God tells you, here's the reason for this. What is the reason for the renewing and making new of your thinking process? It's so that you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You can put to the test all the commandments of the Lord and understanding what God requires of you. God's will, what he says thou shalt or thou shalt not, God's will is good, absolutely good. It is the good of goods. His will is acceptable to himself. He receives it. When his will is done, he says, well done. And God's will is perfect. There's nothing lacking in the will of God. The scriptures are a sufficient rule for every good work, Paul says. So here, he's saying, if your mind is renewed and made new and transformed and you stop being conformed to the world and its wicked patterns of thought, and you renew your mind with the patterns of thought that God teaches you, ethics follow. You see that? So ethics, the philosophical way of putting it is that ethics follow epistemology. Once you know, that's epistemology, Then you do. That's ethics. But the one follows the other. We don't change what we think because we think something's right or wrong. It's that our minds are renewed and transformed into the image of God, and then we can actually know what is good and pleasing to God, what is acceptable to Him, what is that perfect will of God. but it starts with the living sacrifice body and soul so that your heart is renewed in the thinking capacity and then enabled to make moral choices based off of what you know to be the will of God, good, acceptable, and perfect. All right, so we've seen that in both evil and good men, the heart is determinative of ethics. It produces specific behaviors, whether good or evil, whether speech or action, whether unrighteous or righteous. The mind is what moves these things. Now page 2, Ephesians 4, 17 through 19. Ephesians 4 17 through 19 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord That she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart and who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greediness." Here, notice, it's filled with intellectual terms. First, he says, don't walk as them. Don't do that anymore. You used to walk that way. That's how you order your life. Don't do that anymore. Why? Well, look, here's how the Gentiles walk. in the vanity of their mind. Now, that's a pretty, pretty scathing assessment. It means that the rational faculty, that's the word mind there, their rational faculty has no substance, totally empty. Now they have the form of reason because they're created in God's image. But if you were to strip away the form, what do you have? Nothing. So the rational faculty might take and make conclusions. But if I were to tell you, all men are dogs, Socrates is a dog, therefore Socrates is, well, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is a dog. That follows the pattern of a proper syllogism in the form of it. But for substance, a man is not a dog. So the heathen can use the form of logic, but what's the substance? Empty, he says. Vanity. Absolutely vain. And then he talks about the understanding. And this is the seat of perception. The mind. The comprehension. That thing that should have light and understanding is full of darkness. The life of God is so far away from this person because he's ignorant. He is alienated from the life of God through ignorance. And then his heart. the thinking, the willing, the affections, blind, or literally calloused over so that it can't feel, it can't have anything penetrate. It doesn't get hurt when it sins. The blindness of their heart. That could be the conscience he's talking about specifically. Because he goes on in verse 19 and says their past feeling, the conscience doesn't condemn any longer. So they give themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. So the intellectual problem of the Gentile is why he lives the way he lives. His heart is wicked. His thoughts are corrupt. His mind is vain. He's ignorant of God. His understanding is darkened. His heart is blind. His past feeling, the conscience doesn't work. The rational faculty doesn't work. He can't perceive things properly. He's in the dark and thinks he has light. Why would you want to live like that, Paul says? Don't do it anymore. They walk that way because of who they are in their heart. So again, when you're talking about psychotherapy, They don't evaluate people on this paradigm. Not at all. They don't evaluate people as body and spirit, problem number one. Then they don't give the priority that God does. Then here's the problem. You think real bad. All your thoughts are vain. The truth you know, you don't make good use of it. You reject the knowledge of God, and so God judges you by giving you over to all these wicked and lascivious practices. All right, so moral degradation is caused by mental darkness. Moral degradation is caused by mental darkness. Now, what this does not mean is, well, if you just educate people enough, then they'll be good people. No, that's not the point. The point is, man is so corrupt that the highest part of his being, the zenith of what it means to be created in the image of God, is dirty and foul. It's like it's just a body. So from that perspective, OK, you're dealing with absolutely unregenerate people, and you tell me that their mind is really just their body. It's like, well, yeah, that's true in some cases. People are so far gone that they've given themselves over. It's as if they just reason with their body, not with their mind. not with their heart. Ephesians 4 20 through 23, the apostle transitions from the Gentile in his mental darkness. And he says this, but she have not so learned Christ, if so be that she have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that she put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Here is the foundation stone of the biblical counseling we'll look at. This is foundational. You have the spirit being renewed. You have the learning of Christ himself. Learning Christ, hearing him, being taught by him has to do with truth. There is truth in Jesus. And that truth transforms the human personality. It doesn't eliminate the human personality. It doesn't eliminate reason. It doesn't eliminate the will. It doesn't eliminate the affections. It doesn't eliminate the body. It sanctifies and renews them. That's his point. So now you have a different principle of operation. You've learned Christ rather than the lies of the old man. You have truth in Jesus instead of darkness in your heart. You have truth as opposed to deceitful lusts. So lusts lie to you. They tell you that you ought to follow your body, that you ought to do whatever it is you want to do. And that is a bunch of lies, because what's at the end of that pathway? Death. Okay, so what good is it for a short season to have the pleasures of sin, when in the end I come to ultimate fiery judgment that never ends? Sounds kind of stupid, because it is. It's deceitful. Lusts lie to you. They tell you things that are not true. So he says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. The rational faculty, the spirit of your mind, has to be recreated in the image of God. And he's going to talk more about that. But that's what he means by the new man, as we'll look at. As contrasted with the old man, with his corrupt and deceitful lust, which brings us to verses 24 through 29 of your handouts there, Ephesians 4, 24 through 29. And that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Okay, here notice. He's saying you have this old man that needs to be put to death and you have this new man which needs to be put to life. But he describes the new man as having been created in righteousness after God or after God's image. in righteousness and true holiness. So this renewing in the spirit of the mind, the renewal of the mental faculty, the capacity to think and see things as they actually are, the learning of Jesus and the truth as it is in him, that means moral transformation. It's not the other way around. Do your moral transformation, then you come to Jesus, then he gives you mercy. No, no, no. He renews you in his image first. Then he enables you more and more to put off the old man and put on the new. He does the work of renovation of the heart, the writing of the law upon the heart, the giving you moral sense and truth. He does that first. Then, your freedom is restored. So, properly understood, the gospel doesn't abolish human reason or human willing. It doesn't do away with either. What it does is it takes the mind in bondage to sin, it takes the will in bondage to lust, and it renews them both in the image of God, so that now the saint is able more and more to do what we call synergistic work, that is cooperating with the grace of God. When you're dead in your trespasses and sins, you cannot cooperate with the grace of God. When you've been raised to newness of life, you can, which is why he says, you. are to put on the new man. You are to put away lying. You are to speak every man truth with his neighbor. You are to be angry and not sin. You are not to let the sun go down upon your wrath. You are not to give place to the devil. If you used to steal, don't do it any longer, but now you work with your hands the thing that is good so that you can have to give to him that needeth. So all these are duties enjoined of specific parties based off of what? The prior work of God in the gospel, the learning of Christ, the renewal of the mind, the spirit of your mind being renewed, the old man being put off, the new man being put on, the old corrupt deceitful lust losing their hold over us. We are renewed in the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. Now Colossians says in knowledge as well. So knowledge righteousness and holiness of the truth is our catechism puts it but you get the idea. This is the renewal of the image of God and because the spirit of your mind is renewed. Therefore, ethically, you can do those things that please God. You can put off those things that displease God. And this is what we call euthetic counseling. It means to take the word of God, as Paul does here, and to apply it to the mind and the conscience and the behavior. That's exactly what the New Testament is all about. It's dealing with us as those renewed in the image of God. First, we must be renewed in His image. That's the preaching of the gospel directly to unbelievers. then having been renewed in God's image, there is the ongoing duty of conformity to Christ, growing in grace and in knowledge, and that's what he's talking about. Put off the old man, put on the new. Lying is against God's law. So put off lying, thou shalt not bear false witness. Put on a replacement. You're still gonna use your tongue, but rather than use it for lying, use it for speaking truth to your neighbor. Then he says, you still have your affections. You still have anger, don't you? That's a natural human affection. But don't sin when you use it. So there's a restraint. Then he says, if you have a dispute, you're gonna have disputes because you're a sinner. You're gonna live with sinners. You're gonna have problems with sinners. Resolve them while the day is still alive. Don't go to bed. If you can at all avoid it, don't go to bed unresolved with someone else. And then he says, okay, God says thou shalt not steal. So stop that, put it off. But in its place, work with your hands. This is what Proverbs is all about. This is called the Puritan work ethic. How did America become so prosperous? Because the Puritans said, you should work hard. Why? For the glory of God as the renewal of his image, because God says, thou shalt not steal, therefore you must work with your hands. They got it right from the epistles of Paul and the law of Moses, which is where Paul's getting this. Don't steal, work hard, and then you'll have to give to him that needeth. This isn't talking necessarily even about handouts. This is talking about primarily it seems in context providing work for others to do. So that they have things like the gleaning of your fields in the Old Testament. God prospers you so that you can prosper others by giving them honest toil. There are people who need handouts. There are fatherless, there are widows, there are blind men, there are real legit people who actually have disabilities. Mental disabilities are not disabilities. People with mental problems or spiritual problems that they call mental problems, they can work. They choose not to. That's a different thing. For them, we say, if a man will not work, let him also not eat. But for those who legitimately cannot work, we must provide for them. We must look for opportunities to do good for them. So here, both are included. Honest labor for those who can work and giving to those who cannot. But God's law, thou shalt not steal, requires both of those. And then corrupt communication. Put that off. That diseased, rotting flesh. You ever had an animal sitting on the side of the road, and it's hot in the summertime, and there's roadkill, and it sits there for a day or two, what do you start smelling? Corruption. Stinks. That's the way our mouth operates in a fallen world. It's like the words that come out are the stench of death. And so he says, don't do that. Put it off. Why? Because your mind is renewed. Your will is renewed. Your affections are renewed. You have learned Christ. You know truth instead of lies. Your mind can function instead of being in darkness. The spirit of your mind is renewed. All right. Philippians 1 9 through 11. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that she may approve things that are excellent, that she may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ under the glory and praise of God." Here, notice, first, the heart is what loves. So when he says, I pray that your love may abound, what does he tack on to the end? knowledge, and judgment. Then, after having discussed knowledge and judgment as being essential to love, he then shows the application, approving things that are excellent. This is what we call discrimination. People who say you should never discriminate are fools. They actually just want you to be corrupt. Don't distinguish between this and that. That's what it means. i know that this thing is more excellent it has a moral virtue to it so i'm going to practice and love that thing this thing is foolish and it's wicked so i'm going to push it down in my esteem i'm going to despise it and I'm going to love virtue. That is to approve the things that are excellent. And by doing that, by having our love informed by knowledge, judgment, and approval of what is excellent, we may be sincere and without offense. That's what they don't want you to be, sincere and without offense. They want you to provide occasions for others to sin. That's what offense is. It's not people getting their feelings hurt. You might actually do the right thing and hurt somebody's feelings, but that is not an offense. That is an offense taken, not an offense given. An offense given is where you provide a stumbling block for somebody else to sin. You allow them, you encourage them, you praise them, whatever it is. You provide a stumbling block for other people. He wants us in our love to know what moral excellence is so that we don't provide occasions for others to sin, ourselves or others. Note, he says offense. And then sincerity means you're not a hypocrite, because love that is hypocritical, that professes to be love, and has no knowledge or judgment or approving of things that are excellent, is absolute hypocrisy. Everybody who waves the rainbow flag is a hypocrite, period, full stop. And if they say it has something to do with love, they're even greater hypocrites, because they're saying, my demonish hellish lust, that's love. And God says, no, it's not. So it's hypocrisy. It's the profession of love without the substance of love. So he wants us to have a love that knows what God says, that judges his judgments, that approves those things that are excellent, so we're not a bunch of hypocrites who profess to be loving and don't actually love. It's like they say, love is love, right? Well, water is water, so go drink out of the toilet. No, not all love is love. Not all water is water. Some water people do things to and you don't want to drink it because it's defiled and it's degraded. So likewise here. You must, in your love, be able to approve those things that are excellent. And then he says, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. Here, notice, the heart is renewed, and he prays for it more and more in knowledge and judgment and approval of excellence, without this hypocritical love, without the stumbling blocks you present for others. And what is the fruit of that? Righteousness, obedience to God, fulfilling His commandments, rendering to everyone what is their due. All right, Philippians 2, 1 through 5. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy. Let ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. All right, so the apostle has a lot in this passage, and we won't get into all of it. But again, notice the concept, the biblical concept of love starts in your mind, because the heart is primarily your thinking. He says, if you want to love one another, if you want to have comfort and consolation in Christ and in love, if you want to have vows of mercies, he says, you all should think you're the same thing. Verse two. That's the first thing. That's the way to have consolation in Christ, comfort of love. Everyone set your mind upon the same things. And then he says, be of one accord. So he's addressing your agreements. And this idea is to be harmonious, to be in full agreement, to have the same attitude and thoughts about things. That's the idea of one accord. And of course, one mind is to understand the same thing, to have the same frame of mind, the same way of thinking. And that way of thinking, he says, is that exact way that Christ thought about us. That's the way we're supposed to think. That's what's supposed to occupy the space in our thinking, in our hearts. Let this mind, that is, this understanding, this way of thinking, this purpose, let that be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. And that is lowliness of mind, abasing yourself so that others might be blessed. That's exactly what Christ did, right? He's existing from all eternity, fully God, He takes upon himself the form of a servant. He doesn't grasp at the glory of his Godhead as a thing to be held tightly to. He lets it go and makes himself look like he's a servant. And he actually becomes obedient, even unto death. All of that is not suitable to anyone who's God. All of that is not what God deserves. But Christ gave up all of his outward glory in what we call his work of humiliation. so that what he might benefit? Well, not primarily. It's for the benefit of others. It's for the good of his people. It's for our salvation, for the forgiveness of our sins. And that's the mind, he says. That's the way of thinking. That's the understanding. That's the purpose we ought to have. Just like Christ, so us. That's what leads to consolation, comfort, that like-mindedness, that same accord, is imitating our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ is our Savior. He did things on our behalf, in our place. But He is also our great example in this particular of self-denying, self-abasing love, where you go down so that others may go up. You are humbled so that others might be exalted. You are made poor so that others might be made rich. And this is the paradigm of Christian love. So in all these things, the point, if I had to just bring all this together, is the mind determines the behavior. So epistemology, how do you think? How do you know? That determines ethics. What do you do? So as we go through and look, we looked at what man is, now we see, well, there's a really practical implication of this, isn't there? If man is both spirit and body, you cannot address him merely by physical causes. And if the moral conduct of man is a product of the immaterial part of man, then you can't fix his moral problems by addressing his physical condition, can you? You cannot. And so we're going to see, as we get in, this will be our second phase. We'll move into our third phase, God willing, week after next. And that is what we'll see as the contrast. the psychotherapy world, and the Christian counseling world, and even now the Association of Biblical Counselors, they think you can address problems basically on the physical level. That man is a machine, or a chemical reaction. And therefore you can address the machine with environmental considerations, as opposed to what the Bible says, which is no. The moral problems are from the immaterial part of man. They must be addressed by causing someone to either come to know Christ, to be renewed in the spirit of their mind, or if they know Christ, to cause them more and more to put off the old man and put on the new. And that will deal with those moral issues. If there are physical issues, you should address them physically, obviously. But often what people consider to be physical issues are not physical issues. A mental health issue is generally a sin issue. That's usually what it is. Sinned against, or sinned committed, or both. And then that gets suppressed and crested over, and it produces a conscience that can't think. We call that a sociopath, right? That's what the psychotherapists call it. What does Paul call it? darkened in their understanding, blindness of their heart. Their conscience doesn't work anymore. Is that a mental problem? No, it's a spiritual problem, and it has spiritual answers. And those are what we'll look at, God willing, in the weeks to follow.